Ok, I admit it I am a techie toy junkie, but over the years I have kind of gotten tired of piles of fairly inconvenient or borderline useless gadgets piling up that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Well I have been looking at GPS units recently, and thinking how neat some of the new GPS units are, but also how annoying a lot of them are. Getting map updates, software updates, downloading my tracks and routes. It isn't overly convenient, but I do like some of the features such as real time traffic data, and weather info. But I have noticed that a lot of this info is limited in availability to areas that are covered by certain FM radio bands. Some of the features seem cool if the units were connected to the internet so that you could lookup specific information or get more data. Then there is the cost. Some of these are not just expensive, but really expensive.
Well I thought that I could possibly cheap seats and do an end run around this mess by getting a smart phone with the GPS and all the bells and whistles. Great I thought, everything in one unit and with a data plan internet too... Just one problem. You can't hardly use the dang thing when driving down the road that that pretty much rules out this being worth while for it's intended purpose. The interface isn't designed for looking at it at a glance and getting the info you need.
Well I was listening to a podcast today called TWIT(This Week In Tech) from a couple months back as I had fallen behind listening to this show. They mentioned something that everyone just loved and that is rare for the panel to unanimously agree on anything. It is this new GPS unit called the Dash. Dash appears to do everything that a normal GPS does with turn by turn directions and all of that, but it is connected to the internet via both Wifi and cell phone for real time data. It automatically updates maps, and data. It has a database that reflect speed traps, and red light cameras. The units apparently even send back anonymous data about your travel to let other Dash users know the road conditions as far as speed and traffic congestion. The internet connection also has built in search functions so that you can lookup a phone number, find the nearest food, or lookup anything specific your interested in. Overall it just sounds very cool and appears to put most of the common things that come up that you want to lookup or do at your fingers.
So has anyone else seen one of these, have one, or use one? They say the unit costs $399, and the cell phone subscription costs like $10 or $12 a month to stay connected. Map updates are done over the internet and are free.
The price looks good, and frankly most of the features that I really want sound like they are built into this thing. So I would love to hear from owners of this GPS.
Here are some links about it:
http://www.boston.com/business/techn...ctions/?page=1
http://www.dash.net/
I have been the guinea pig in the past, but if I can find someone who has already tried this and says it is a good fit for OTR that would be awesome.
Longsnowsm